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PAGE PAGE NOTESOF THE WEEK 433 .................. Books AND PERSONS. By Jacob Tonson ...... *.. 445 FOREIGNAFFAIRS. By S. Verdad ......... ..* 435 THEOLOGY.-VI. By M. E. Oxon. ............ 446 THEPARTY SYSTEM.--I. By H. Belloc ............ 436 RECENTVERSE. By Jack Collings Squire ......... 447 JUDGES AND THE ADMINISTRATIONOF JUSTICE. By C. Stanhope 437 DRAMA:THE WITNESS FOR THE DEFENCE-- ROCOCO. By Ashley Dukes 449 NIETZSCHEAND WOMAN. By V. W. Eyre 439 ..................... ......... LETTERSTO THE EDITORFROM G. K. Chesterton, S. Verdad, THE DON IN ARCADIA .................. 440 Arthur Russell, E. Belfort Bax, Arthur P. Grenfell, AMERICANNOTES. By Juvenal ............... 441 Upton Sinclair, Felix Grendon, Mary Gawthorpe, F. G. MACHIAVELLION RELIGION, WAR,AND PEACE...... .. 443 Montagu Powell, E. H. Visiak, C. E. Bechhöfer, G. T. UNEDITEDOPINIONS ............... *-- 444 Wrench ........................ 450 All communications intended for the Editor should be addressed to THE NEW AGE, 38, Cursitor Street, take it as certain that its tactical object was to E. C. strengthen the Liberal Party for the subsequent discus- sion of the Second Chamber. *** NOTES OF THE WEEK. Regarding the practical effects of the Bill, if and when it is passed, we are not so sure that these have IT is a pity the House of Commons was too boorish been equally clearly foreseen. With one certain effect to hear the remainder of Mr. Balfour’s disquisition on we dealt at length last week, namely, the further con- the value of the hereditary principle in a democratic centration of power within the Cabinet. This probable community. That good breeding has a value and is consequence of the restriction of the Lords’ veto has commonly recognised by the people to have a value is been emphasised now by many speakers and writers. as clear as the contrary is theoretic. In planning a Lord Robert Cecil for one, in the current “Saturday Re- constitution it is therefore well to take facts into ac- view,” writes on the Party System in the same tone as count before theories ; and Mr. Balfour’s little lecture, Mr. Belloc. Lord Hugh Cecil suggested last week in nipped in the bud as it was, did deal with facts. Un- the House of Commons that in view of the threatened fortunately, however, neither the House generally nor Cabinet dictatorship members should in future vote in his own party in particular was inclined to forgo their the House by secret ballot. Mr. Austen Chamberlain daily fisticuffs and manœuvres. Mr. Balfour had to was equally precise. Speaking in the House on apologise to the one for leaving only for a moment Monday he said : “We are told the present situation is “the ordinary interchange of friendly blows with the intolerable, because the House of Lords can force a Government,” and to the other his messages, we under- dissolution upon this House. It is this very power, stand, have been unwelcome. Bismarck was once declared to be intolerable when exercised by the House asked what he would do if an English army entered of Lords, which enables the Government to hold its Holland. His reply was that he would have it arrested. majority in the hollow of its hand. That is the threat Similarly we are disposed to call for the arrest of the which they can hold in terrorem over members under Unionists in their threatened depredations on the Con- such circumstances that a recalcitrant member, giving stitution. These go far beyond the bounds of anything a vote which brings his party to defeat, and so forcing dreamed of by Liberals, and, in addition, have the a dissolution, knows that whatever be the chances of defect of hopeless self-division. It is only after pass- his party he has very little chance of returning to this ing the various utterances of the Unionist leaders House. ..It applies to all parties. ..The tendency through many alembics that we finally discover what of Government, as it becomes more democratic, is to the Unionists, are really after. The Liberal plan, on put even greater power into the hands of Government.” the other hand, is clear and definite, and, so far, shows These, however, are not the only proofs we have that no shadow of turning. Messrs. Belloc and Chesterton’s book on “The Party **+ System” is getting home, or that one of the probable effects of the Parliament Bill is now beginning to be Of the primary part of the Liberal plan there is, discerned and feared. There are many others, and we indeed, no possible doubt, since it has been printed and would advise our readers to keep an eye open for then. discussed and read a second time in the House of *** Commons. What its real motive may be or what its practical effects will prove to be are matters still of What, however, we would remark is that neither the some speculation. Mr. Haldane has thrown some clear plans of the Government nor the nebulous plans of light on the first by his remark that the Parliament the Unionists contain any remedy whatever for this Bill was necessary to put the Liberals in a position to descriable evil. What, for example, is the Govern- negotiate on fairly equal terms with the Unionists. If ment’s plan for reconstructing the Second Chamber, this means anything, it means that subsequent to the which, it is presumed, will act as a check on the passage of the Bill a second conference will be held to Cabinet? Mr. Asquith has defined the conditions with discuss the recomposition of the Second Chamber. his usual precision and lucidity. They are as follows : That, doubtless, was the intention from the very first, (a) The Commons is to remain predominant in legisla- and we have only to congratulate the front benches on tion ; (b) the functions of the Second Chamber are to be the foresight they have exercised. It is no wonder, confined to consultation, revision and delay; (c) its after this, that the proceedings of the first Conference numbers must be relatively small; (d) it must not be should be kept secret, or that the method of conference composed on a hereditary basis ; (e) it must be non- should continue to be regarded as invaluable. So far party. All this may be admirable in theory, but in then as the motive of the Parliament Bill goes, we may practice we do not perceive much hope in such a 434 Chamber of effectively checking the absolutism of any will advocate its substitute and desperate successor, the Cabinet, whether Liberal or Tory. The first two con- Referendum. Since we do not yet belong to those with- ditions follow, of course, from the Parliament Rill, and out hope (neither, strange to say, does Mr. Belloc, to would be answered by the present House of Lords judge from his letter in the NEWAGE last week), we are without its absolute veto. But the crux of Mr. compelled to rule out the Referendum proposal from the Asquith’s plan is the elective character (including, we catalogue of good elements in the Unionist reform suppose, the nominated) of the composition of the new scheme. Second Chamber ; and of this we have only to repeat *** our previous comment that one elected chamber is no When, however, we examine the Unionist scheme, better that another elected chamber. Unless a Second bones and beak and all, we see no more security in it as Chamber differs from the first in kind, it does not differ a check on the Cabinet than in the Liberal scheme. effectively at all. Condition (d), the non-partisan char- Even if it were possible to persuade the country to acter of the Second Chamber, is an impossible product accept such a haggis of a Chamber as the Unionists of an elected Senate or of a Senate whose members are propose, its dependence on the Front Benches would nominated by the Cabinet of the day. still be complete. The only element in it, namely, the *** hereditary element, that would not owe its election to. The failure of Mr. Asquith’s logical and coherent plan the Cabinet, and consequently need not, unless volun- of reform throws us back on the illogical and incoherent tarily, obey the Party Whips, would assuredly be re- adumbrations of plan which move among the Unionists. duced to impotence. That is to say, the only element Reduced to their common factors the various Unionist conceivably independent would be robbed of its present schemes amount to this: a mixed Second Chamber, predominance. On the other hand, the Party nominees, consisting of hereditary, nominated and elected mem- disguised as Crown nominees, returned and discredited bers ; joint conferences between the two Chambers in proconsuls and the like, would be masters of the situa- case of dispute; and resort to the Referendum when tion, and their subservience to one or other of the Cabinet such disputes cannot be jointly settled. (We make Parties would be complete. Doubtless, their uniform a present of this summary to Unionists in the dark as to tendency would be to obey the Tory rather than the the policy of their party. The above is it, and we have Liberal whips, but that is just what we want to avoid. only arrived at its formulation after hours of distilla- For, as we said last week, it matters nothing to Cabinet tion.) Now at the first blush we are bound to say that absolutism whether one or the other Whip is uniformly the Unionist plan, here crystallised, is at least no worse obeyed. It is only calculability that lends itself ta than the Liberal plan. Like the Liberal plan, it contains absolutism. **U both good and bad suggestions.

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